Tonya J. Long: 0:07

Welcome home, friends. I'm Tonya Long, and this is RESET, where purpose meets possibility. Each week, we share conversations with thought leaders, innovators and the dreamers and doers who are reshaping the future of work, technology, longevity and purpose. Whether you're navigating AI's impact, reimagining your career or searching for deeper meaning, you're in the right place. So settle in, open your mind and let's explore what happens when purpose meets possibility.

Tonya J. Long: 0:48

Hello everyone and welcome to RESET with Tonya here at KPCR-LP 92.9 FM. I with every guest I say this is my favorite person, but this one just might be my favorite person. Andreas Mueller is a digital amplifier and has been since the digital age began because we are that old and is moving and transitioning from his digital expertise in the world to a purpose-driven focus on Age Tech, and that transition has been going on for not very long maybe six or eight months or less but it is a beautiful thing to see Andreas move from a digital amplifier to an Age Tech hero. Big shout out to our friends at AARP who have been working with Andreas and my best friend's sister-in-law, Karin If you listen to this at some point. We're thrilled to have connected you guys to work together to bring technology to people that helps them as they transition through the different stages of life. It's really exciting. We're all going to live much longer.

Tonya J. Long: 1:58

One of the tenets of the RESET podcast is around longevity, but with broader longevity in the world we're looking at a different set of needs that need to be accommodated as people physically age and mentally and emotionally age. Loneliness is a big deal and so we'll get for the aging population and for all populations these days actually. So we'll get more into that as we go through the conversation, but I am so happy to have my dear, dear friend, andreas, with us today. Andreas Mueller, welcome to RESET with Tonya.

Andreas Mueller: 2:35

Thank you. Thank you, Tonya. It's great to be here. It truly is.

Tonya J. Long: 2:39

Yeah, you're going to hear a lot of love on this show today because we just have such deep respect for each other.

Andreas Mueller: 2:48

Andreas, when did we actually meet? I was trying to remember that.

Tonya J. Long: 2:51

I think it was has it just been in the last year.

Andreas Mueller: 2:54

I think it's been in the last year.

Tonya J. Long: 2:56

That's the amazing thing about community and the way you and I drive community, because people feel like they've known each other forever and they know all their family history and they know what's happening in their personal lives that are important and relevant and you feel like you've known each other for a long time. And I have that with several of you where I recognize there it's intense to live here in the Bay Area, but we also develop really intense friendships and I'm grateful for that.

Tonya J. Long: 3:26

So I've rattled. Why don't you tell us what are you working on right now that excites you?

Andreas Mueller: 3:32

Wow, the Age Tech thing maybe. Yeah yeah, the way that came about was I was involved with a founders event in Portugal and Miguel, my good buddy from the Algarve, he asked me to be a mentor and just to be generally involved in the event.

Andreas Mueller: 3:55

This was back pre, probably in summer, halfway through the year last year, and by October 22nd we were going to welcome up to 400 startups, and so I looked at the. So we're going to have 400 startups and whittle them down to the finalists and have a demo day in Southern Portugal and in the Algarve the beautiful, beautiful Algarve, which is a lot like our coast here and I remember looking at the landing page and I looked at the sectors that they were focused on and these were sectors that just make sense for Portugal, but then also for the Algarve, for southern Portugal, and the three sectors were travel, tech okay, of course interesting agri-tech.

Andreas Mueller: 4:44

That makes sense too. Really important there. I'm fishing also, but agriculture, great. And then Age Tech and this, yeah, this is about. This is probably almost a year ago. I remember thinking Age Tech and I thought, okay, whatever, yeah, I guess I can figure that one out. It just didn't sound that exciting. But then I just I opened up to it more and more and didn't sound that exciting, but then I just I opened up to it more and more and that's something I've learned myself just to open yourself up to ideas. And, as I don't cheesy as that sounds, it really does. It does work. And ever since then I've just been very interested in Age Tech. I remember mentioning it to people and everybody's reaction was, yeah, that's actually really good. And it's funny because a lot of people have to be very careful how you pronounce it, because people are not familiar with it. They think H as the letter, so H what's?

Andreas Mueller: 5:36

H, what's the H sound? No age, you're like senior okay, okay and then I remember mentioning it to you and you just your eyes just opened up why? And he's oh that's it, that's it, andres, that's your path. To you, and you just your eyes just opened up wide and you said oh, that's it, that's it, andreas, that's your path. And then, like when I had your stamp of approval, I knew this was I can't go wrong. And I worked on this with my COO, with Brandy, who's traveling in China right now.

Andreas Mueller: 5:58

Thank you, Brandy, and it's yeah, it's just been such a great, a great journey. And yeah, it's just been such a great, a great journey. And yeah, thank you, Melissa, also for supporting me in this, and it just yeah. There's so many things I could start talking about, but let me, I'll let you ask a question, no you're good.

Tonya J. Long: 6:15

You're good. I recognize this is a pivot that's in process as you figure this out and figure out where to make the most meaningful impact. You've been a digital agency guy at a pretty high level for a long time and that's been your 22 years 22 years, my goodness, and so that's been a big focus.

Andreas Mueller: 6:34

Oh wait, actually 23.

Tonya J. Long: 6:37

Yeah, so that's a very definitive path. And then pivoting this way to something so new that you have to speak it clearly so that people don't misunderstand that it's that new it's not a household term yet I experienced that you met some of my radio colleagues here before the show and when I told them what you're pivoting into, they had the same reaction. They weren't clear what it was, and I gave them some examples. So you're personally pivoting, but you're also pivoting everyone in the circles that are around you for them to understand it. So what has that turned? That's a good point, yeah, yeah, because you have a lot of circles. I'm only in a few of them, but I see the other ones through your thought leadership on LinkedIn. So I know that you have a lot of different communities that you are influential in. So what has that pivot been like for you? Rebranding yourself, because I don't think you're leaving digital at all.

Tonya J. Long: 7:35

I just think you're focusing in on where you can have impact with that in a more specific vertical. So what has that transition been like? Helping educate the people around you and helping bring them along by developing followership for that.

Andreas Mueller: 7:52

So you say a pivot and a rebrand, and initially I was thinking no, not at all, but then, the more I think about it, no, you're absolutely right, I think so. What I've been lacking for a long time is that I've always been good at digital marketing, digital advertising. It's been my passion.

Tonya J. Long: 8:16

The strategic side.

Andreas Mueller: 8:17

The strategic side Is what I see in you, yeah yeah, definitely, but within that, I mean, that field is so huge, it's just such a horizontal field, it just covers everything and then at the same time, it's covering b2b to a certain extent. B2c, sure, it's fun, but mostly b2b because it's more complex. Okay, so, business to business versus a business to consumers, and for me it's always been, there's always been this question. I'm in a group of like-minded agencies and within that group we're always told to niche down and figure out, like, what is your focus? Because once you have that focus, you can always open up. But if you have that focus, you have a story to tell and it's so much easier to tell, wow. So even going back about 20 years, 22 years, when we first so this was a cultural thing. I just had a podcast this morning about what I love about Portugal.

Andreas Mueller: 9:20

So there's a lot of cultural things that are coming together. For me today, I connected with a German guy. We started up Blue Fusion and for us it was enough just to say hey, we do SEO.

Tonya J. Long: 9:32

Because it was so long time that's been a big market.

Andreas Mueller: 9:35

Yes, yeah, at the time, and I remember the big, the big door opening for me was I was doing a presentation in I think was in Santa Cruz actually and I was presenting on a panel and I was next to Tony Gasparets who was the VP of marketing for West Marine, the boating supplier franchise out here for boating.

Andreas Mueller: 10:00

Yeah, I see that a lot of the coastal towns store, yes, yes, but they're like I'm trying to remember, let's say, $800 million revenue, something like that, maybe even more than that. And the doors were open to me because I remember I was talking about SEO search engine optimization and so this VP of this huge company approached me afterwards and said hey, it was great being on the panel with you. Could you do SEO for us? So it was so new.

Andreas Mueller: 10:33

You didn't even need a specific niche or anything. You just said I do this and it's almost like AI nine months ago. If you say I do AI, ai Whisper or I prompt engineers like wow Sherpa, an AI Sherpa, exactly exactly yeah.

Andreas Mueller: 10:48

And so, getting back to the pivot, recently I have looked at what do we actually do? So we do digital marketing, we do paid advertising, but that's like saying I don't know, it's just not going deep. And so the thing I was lacking is the excitement of a specific vertical niche. And so what happened on the way to that decision was also opening up, and actually not even opening up, but going back to our roots of working with startups. So in the very beginning, we worked with startups, then we expanded and then we worked with huge companies, and then suddenly we're working with multi-billion dollar enterprises, which is great but also can be a major pain. And so by going back to my roots, embracing that original excitement of working with Yelp that had just come to market, or Skype, or LinkedIn, we helped LinkedIn with their SEO.

Tonya J. Long: 11:56

Oh wow, it was insane.

Andreas Mueller: 11:58

I did not realize that was part of your history. Yeah, and so the other pivot, like as you termed it, which is accurate was opening back up to startups and working with and, as Tonya, working with startups can be very difficult. It's fun on the surface, there's so much energy, there's exuberance and energy. There's so much promise, so much opportunity.

Tonya J. Long: 12:21

There's also a lot of hand-holding. A lot of coaching is required because of the lack of experience and breadth yes, in history.

Andreas Mueller: 12:29

I think that's fair to say yeah and then also there's a lack of funding, especially if they're pre-series a, pre-series b, so you just have to be flexible and figure out what works. And so, in a sense, getting way back to your original question, there has been like a double pivot. So going from the enterprise re-embracing the startup and that's where we met just in that fertile field of startup events, startup founders, funders and then also kind of looking at this niche and really digging down into Age Tech.

Tonya J. Long: 13:05

I love it. I think that you are particularly well equipped I'll say it, it's not the right word, but I'll say socially equipped to deal with a lot of diversity in your life. I didn't know until I stalked you on LinkedIn for this show that you speak seven languages. I counted Maybe some, not as fluently as others.

Andreas Mueller: 13:30

To a certain degree exactly, but to a certain degree you speak seven different languages.

Tonya J. Long: 13:33

So I want to know the story on that history, why you speak seven languages. Of course I know that you have a European affinity focus that you execute on, but you have other things in your life just to make note of, like your wife's a chef, so you're surrounded by food as art and you have a daughter who's trans, so I know that who's a chef? Who is a chef?

Andreas Mueller: 13:57

as well.

Tonya J. Long: 13:57

That's right, and I've had her food when we were at the Ferry Building that day.

Tonya J. Long: 14:01

Yeah, so you're surrounded by art. You're surrounded by diversity. I know your personal causes that we trade texts on are very much about humanity and equity and diversity. So you're a champion for love. Actually, at the end of the day, you're a champion for love. So, identifying all those personal pivots for you because those were all like reinventions, pivots, they were parts of your life that made you a fuller, richer person. How you work with others who are launching new things or doing new things Because I do think there's a correlation in your ability to fully see people and then to help them on their way to building something new. So how has your diversity, as a broad word, helped you to help others?

Andreas Mueller: 15:01

So let me go back to my, because there's so much to latch onto here and for me to get excited about, because I think the cultural stuff and the language is just so important.

Tonya J. Long: 15:13

Why seven languages? It's going on.

Andreas Mueller: 15:17

So should I just dive into that.

Tonya J. Long: 15:18

Yeah, sure, yeah.

Andreas Mueller: 15:19

I think that's a very interesting set point for who you are, because to me that's a very interesting set point for who you are, Because to me that's so important. So I grew up in Germany in a very unusual family because we were bicultural, my mom being American, my dad German. So at home when I grew up and this was in the very early in the early 60s, going way 1960s yep, for the younger kids listening here, and so my first language.

Andreas Mueller: 15:48

Although I was in Germany, my first language was and I remember hearing that on tapes that my dad had recorded was English and I guess it makes sense the mother is American, so you speak English. But that's a decision that my parents made because there were a lot of kind of critical forces out there saying oh no, if you like, if he learns English, he'll be super confused once he goes to kindergarten, and for me that wasn't an issue at all, because kids are so malleable they're like little sponges, they just suck it all up, and so for me to be speaking English at home and then to go to the kindergarten, where nobody spoke English.

Andreas Mueller: 16:34

There was zero English and suddenly it's just German.

Andreas Mueller: 16:38

you just realize, oh, it's different rules, Okay, different environments, Okay, that's cool. And so when I go back I can use both languages, but here I just use German. So that was always so. The bicultural in the two languages, those were all very important for me. Then I remember so speaking of more languages, I remember traveling and we would go we were very being in Germany or super close to France or Italy, so we'd go to France and I could hear my parents speak French and realize oh okay, so that's the secret ticket here you speak the language and you know things, magic happens. And in seventh, so in fifth grade, I got my first language in school in Germany, which was English, which was okay, this is easy.

Andreas Mueller: 17:28

Although I had to be careful, because sometimes I would notice the teachers making mistakes and I would want to correct them, but I was still just easy.

Tonya J. Long: 17:37

But see you learned early the value of human interaction and appropriateness right. You knew not to be the snotty kid that said that's not right. That verb conjugation is not right. You knew early to grace. To be fair, I was a little turd as a kid. Were you a snotty kid? No, but still.

Andreas Mueller: 18:00

I mean that learning is still there. Yeah, yeah, so you understand, but still I mean that learning is still there, yeah, yeah so you understand. Mm-hmm. And you just appreciate that. One of my funny anecdotes is I remember being out with my friends out in the backyard or whatever, and then, speaking German, we interact in German, obviously, because that's what you speak in Germany. Right.

Andreas Mueller: 18:22

And then my mother would call me from the window second and she said, hey, come on home, we're gonna have dinner ready. And I'd answer, and I think I probably answered in German and my friends are completely perplexed, like what is going on here. She said something, you asked her in German, and then I, and then, and as I'm taking this in, I'm realizing okay, so we are different, like we as a family, and yeah, and so then I was saying the next door that got opened for me in terms of languages and cultures was obviously fifth grade English. Okay, some challenges, but okay, that's easy. And then I learned French in seventh grade and I realized this is really weird and hard.

Tonya J. Long: 19:07

Because French was my language in school. Okay, remember.

Andreas Mueller: 19:10

Steve Martin. He said oh, those French, they have a different word for everything.

Tonya J. Long: 19:13

And that was. Mandarin is still the hardest, but we didn't learn that for a long time.

Andreas Mueller: 19:18

Yeah, but for me there's just this additional realization that, hey, you've been in a protected world because you're this, you've got the English and the German covered and you're like very special for just even for my greater family, because we had professors in our family and they spoke some English but they just didn't have the aptitude and the comfort. And so learning French I realized this is hard, I have to actually sit down and memorize things and in a sense that also forced things, forced some doors open for me, some doors of maybe lack of comfort we can just see, yeah, without comfort, yeah, yeah, but you realize, that, yeah.

Andreas Mueller: 20:03

But you realize that you get into this track of English and German, american and German culture and you think that's it. And then this other culture comes to you and you think, oh, this should be easy. And you realize, no, it's very different the way they count Like even the French concept of soixantez is 60-16, which is 60 plus 16, so 76. What are you thinking? What is going on? Just these bizarre concepts, yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 20:35

Yeah, and I'm tracing this all back to Noah's Ark. They just stuck with one language, right, but no, or the Tower of Babel either in my tradition, the tradition that I grew up educated in. I'm thinking about all these points in our history where we broke into these different languages, and I think that speaks to for you, you recognizing early on that we do have differences. We are not all built the same, and isn't that a marvelous thing? I think that's. I would characterize you as living your best life, embracing all the differences.

Andreas Mueller: 21:16

I can't deny that.

Tonya J. Long: 21:17

Yeah, that is entirely who you are.

Andreas Mueller: 21:20

Right.

Tonya J. Long: 21:20

Yeah, so how did actually?

Tonya J. Long: 21:24

you said france let give me one second because I need to do a quick station id and talk about this weekend. It was it's a horrible segue, but it's the only one I can pull is wine, and france, and france is so known for wine, but so is northern california. So if you enjoy wine, uh, this weekend the las gatos chamber of Commerce is hosting the annual it's they've been doing this for 15 years, I think the Los Gatos Wine Walk. So Saturday, come see us. The station will be broadcasting live from the courtyard outside with a couple of bands. It's going to kick up.

Tonya J. Long: 21:59

So if you want to drink 30 different kinds of wine, you'll need a ticket from Eventbrite. But if you want to drink 30 different kinds of wine, you'll need a ticket from Eventbrite. But if you just want to come and enjoy a day when Los Gatos is certain to be filled with interesting people and interesting things to do, then stop by the station at 59 North Santa Cruz and you might be interviewed live. You definitely enjoy some really interesting talent and bands, and that is this Saturday, the 26th of April. So back to you, andreas.

Andreas Mueller: 22:27

I might have to check that out.

Tonya J. Long: 22:28

Yeah, I'll be here. I'll be here at 10 am on Saturday morning doing studio tours and I encourage you to come by.

Andreas Mueller: 22:36

So we could have a really easy segue here. You're saying French and French wines.

Tonya J. Long: 22:41

That's the only thing I could grab.

Andreas Mueller: 22:42

I used to work in the wine industry.

Tonya J. Long: 22:44

Oh, interesting See, you've got all kinds of valuable skills. These little secrets, Is the wine industry. Why did you develop your? You were already on a path to know multiple languages. Did the wine industry enhance that for you?

Andreas Mueller: 22:58

Yes, okay, yeah. So interesting history. So let me continue with the languages, because then everything will make sense.

Andreas Mueller: 23:07

So then I take French in school, starting in seventh grade. I realize it's tough, push myself, I'm okay, I'm not that great a student in French, because it's frustrating, right. You just feel like, hey, this should be easy, but it's not. Then we moved this was at the end of ninth grade. We moved to the us in 10th grade and then, obviously it makes sense. I remember taking, I took all these crazy things of physics and chemistry, geometry, uh, english literature and what else. Oh, french, obviously.

Andreas Mueller: 23:46

And German as another foreign language and obviously German literature, and so I ended up being in I think it was French three, probably like the third year, but I did really well because I had the foundation already and I realized this is cool because I'm ahead of the curve and now I can drive, so I'm not behind trying to catch up, but I'm actually ahead on the racetrack and I'm leading the pack and it just felt exciting and I was involved in a trip to Montreal that we did. Then I went to college and I majored in German. Originally it was like a scientific focus physics, calculus, and German and French, and then it ended up just being German and French, yeah and yeah. So that whole language stuff kind of.

Tonya J. Long: 24:40

Something that I hear in the story that you just shared is that you enjoyed being out ahead of the pack. So we wouldn't have called that thought leadership in the seventh grade, but you enjoyed being on the far edge of saying this is neat, hey guys, come along. You enjoyed that notoriety, I would call it, and I think that's probably similar to your recent connection to Age Tech, because it is something not everyone knows about yet not everyone's doing. So how has that thought process where you enjoy being an early adopter, how do you think that translated into your connection into Age Tech?

Andreas Mueller: 25:20

So I just made another connection.

Tonya J. Long: 25:23

as we're talking this, people tend to do that when they're behind the mic with me. They're like I never thought about it before, and that's the beauty of us being here together, so anyway. So you made another connection.

Andreas Mueller: 25:34

Tell us about it. No, I was just thinking just this being ahead of the pack, but then you look behind you and you want to educate, which has always been really important to me. And now.

Andreas Mueller: 25:46

I'm seizing this idea a lot better. So in college I focused on French, had a French, major, French-German, and I was able to teach French and I got paid for it. In college I was like a teaching assistant, but truly love is taking concepts and simplifying them for other people understand that's a skill figuring out the subjunctive French, for example, and really simplifying it, just giving a few rules, just so it's not as scary anymore, and I loved being a TA at UC Davis, I think you're a natural teacher.

Andreas Mueller: 26:48

It was so much fun yeah, I was actually disappointed that, if you get, my trajectory is to get a PhD and then teach, teach languages, and it was a little disappointing to see that the focus is publishing and teaching, teaching French, that nobody cares about. It's just the publishing very bizarre medieval concepts that nobody's ever talked about before. That's what gets you ahead, but being a motivating professor or teacher not so much. So I think this all ties together.

Tonya J. Long: 27:30

It started with languages because that's what was available to you as a child and you were, I think, fortunate that you were in a family that was multi-cultural I think was the word you used and definitely multi-language. And then you adopted those languages as you went through school and that worked into a life way of being, that you sought diversity, so you were interested in languages. Then you married a woman at some point along the way, suzanne.

Andreas Mueller: 28:01

We met in graduate school.

Tonya J. Long: 28:03

Because I know y'all have been married like forever.

Andreas Mueller: 28:07

Since 92.

Tonya J. Long: 28:08

Since 92. Wow, that's fantastic.

Tonya J. Long: 28:11

And then had two beautiful daughters, yep. So you've leaned artistically. The languages are artistic, marrying a chef and then having a daughter who's a chef you've definitely got art in your family as a priority, being artistic, expressing yourself, which is, to me, so different from the way we often show up in tech. So you serve tech. You have all this, if you will, artistic trending in your personal life. It's clearly important to you, but the tech audience that you serve and interface with in your professional life can often be very driven and transactional and myopic. I love my tech life that I've had since the 90s. It can be very not artistic if we're not careful, and I think you bring the artistic side to it. Tell me how that life you've built, your personal life, has helped you pivot as you've become an SEO king, helping LinkedIn with SEO that's a story. And then, moving now into Age Tech, how is your love for diversity and I'll just say art as a generality? How has that helped you pivot into dealing with so many different waves of technology?

Andreas Mueller: 29:34

That's. I love that question because it forces me to go back as well and kind of look at some of the pivots. I guess the biggest pivot in my life was when I decided to leave graduate school after my master's.

Tonya J. Long: 29:52

That was still the biggest pivot of your life.

Andreas Mueller: 29:54

No, I'm just calling attention at the time.

Tonya J. Long: 29:57

Thank you, because to me, to me, the At the time, that makes a lot of sense.

Andreas Mueller: 30:02

The logical progression was to get a PhD, because that's something I'd seen in my family. It's what you do, but just to kind of leave that behind because it didn't seem right. And then what we ended up doing? We moved to Mill Valley because that's where Suzanne lived and we found a job in San Francisco. My first job was in the wine industry and then people. So then people asked me because then I got into wine selling and the marketing and then it all just took off and the oh here's. You need to put a pin in technology and the early internet and cover that in a bit. But what happened? From my perspective, it made sense. I get so many questions about oh wait, you were working on a PhD, you're working on a degree in.

Andreas Mueller: 30:53

French literature, the theater of the 20th century. So why are you doing marketing? That doesn't make any sense To me. That actually does make a lot of sense because it's that. It's what you just described. It's that movement from the arts, the culture into, let's say, digital marketing. But the way I perceive marketing is it's really listening, and speaking and learning a language is listening as well, because you're listening to. So how did she say that? Let me try to repeat that. What does she mean here? And if you can take that ability and apply it to marketing specifically, that just means hey, you're a competitor, you're doing it this way. Let me not just assume that we all have to do it the way we think the features should be. But let me look at what you're doing. Maybe I can learn from you. Same with prospects or clients Listening to your clients and understanding this is their language. I need to focus in on that and see maybe we can adjust things a little bit.

Andreas Mueller: 32:06

So instead of push, push, let's develop.

Tonya J. Long: 32:07

Your value is in your strategic ability and your ability to hear in a time when it's hard for people to listen. Everyone in the world, according to Tonya, we don't have enough listeners. We have people really scraping to be heard, and when people learn to listen is when they learn to learn.

Andreas Mueller: 32:33

I'm just going to interject this. That's one thing I really appreciate about your podcasts you actually listen. This that's one thing I really appreciate about your podcasts you actually listen, like. You, like you delve into not the questions you're asking and here's what's next, but you listen to what your guests are saying and you dive into them. Thank you, yeah, yeah it's an opportunity.

Tonya J. Long: 32:53

It's a selfish opportunity for me to learn and to everyone I have on I love. I've even some people that I have just met there. There's an actor in LA that I interviewed early in the podcast and I, matt Drago, just did his first movie and I love Matt Drago. Didn't really know him until I got connected to him to do this but every single person I'm with, I develop another place in my heart, a little chamber in my heart that they have a place in, because people are so remarkable.

Andreas Mueller: 33:25

Isn't that great though.

Tonya J. Long: 33:26

Yeah, but we I will. I'm biased on that front, but I think we all need to learn to listen more, and I realize, you and I, we live in a bubble here in the Bay Area and people are moving so fast and they just want the Bay Area and people are moving so fast.

Tonya J. Long: 33:38

A beautiful bubble and they just want the sound bite and it's a beautiful bubble. But I am really conscientious about modeling for people, true listening and the desire to wait it out to understand what people are about and what the stories are they want to share. I think it's important for our personal success. For us, the more we know about people, the more we carry around about others, the better we are at community, and the better we are at community, the better we are at spreading what it is that we want to do in this world and having greater reach.

Andreas Mueller: 34:15

And wasn't there a study recently on longevity and looking at all of the factors in terms of like access to health care and medication and money? But if you divide them all up and you look at community as a factor, that's the highest ranking factor. If you have friends in the community, that has the biggest impact on the length of your life, which is crazy, and there was a study 10 years ago in the corporate world about people who have friends at work are happier at work.

Tonya J. Long: 34:52

They stay longer 10 years in those companies. There have been several studies on this front about it's healthy to have relationships at where you work because then you're more committed to that workplace, because it's part of who you are Outside of your personal life and family. The family that you create at work has long been understood to be an important thing and I think that the studies we're seeing now on aging and longevity they're just a continuation of that great human need where people need people.

Andreas Mueller: 35:24

Yep, yep, absolutely.

Tonya J. Long: 35:26

Quickly quick station ID take 30 seconds. But we are listening to KPCR-LP 92.9 in Los Gatos and I finally see the sun clipping through the clouds. It was a very overcast morning, but Los Gatos is always beautiful with any weather. Also from KMRT-LP 101.9 FM out of Santa Cruz, and I'm, without saying too much, Andreas, hails from the Santa Cruz area, so he came over the mountain to be with us this morning. So, Andreas, we were talking about listening and depth, and you bring such depth to what you do you truly do Anyone who knows you knows that about you that you take the time to listen. But then the insights that you bring forward change the game, and that's why you've been so good at everything you've done, because, as you do these little micro-pivots in life, you bring insights to the game. I think Listening is hard.

Tonya J. Long: 36:28

It is Because we're all smart and we've all got these innate. I've got a me. It doesn't change much. You do it in second grade and you do it when you're 52. To share there's a great desire to share.

Andreas Mueller: 36:43

Yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 36:44

Yeah, so you wrote recently on LinkedIn. I think this is a transition for us about the value of non-flashy events.

Andreas Mueller: 36:53

Do you remember that post a few weeks ago?

Tonya J. Long: 36:55

about non-flashy events and meaningful connections a few weeks ago about non-flashy events and meaningful connections. I think you are uniquely equipped and a role model for how you build community. How do you think community supports people in their pivots? You were just talking about aging and the studies that show that community and people are part of successful aging. So, for you, how do you see the communities that you are involved with contributing to each other's success, as everyone in those communities is pivoting into new enterprises, new skills, new people that have just moved here? There's a thousand pivots in any group that you and I are in, thousand pivots in any group that you and I are in. So how has your life experience shown you that community helps?

Andreas Mueller: 37:46

us in these pivots. The community is absolutely vital for these pivots.

Tonya J. Long: 37:51

Sounds like a speech because we talk community all the time. But we do, but we love it, but we do, but we love it, we do yeah.

Andreas Mueller: 37:58

So you're saying support supports your pivot. I was thinking of Tonya and I was thinking that, Tonya, you supported my pivot into Age Tech. You actually didn't just support it, you drove it like as a very positive force. So let me just be specific.

Tonya J. Long: 38:21

I mean, we all have ideas. We bounce them off of each other. We need to hear that our ideas have merit, right? Yes, yeah, when they do, and we need to hear that they stink when they don't have merit. Yes, that's equally important. I trust you so much.

Andreas Mueller: 38:31

And I remember when we're talking Age Tech and you had this very positive reaction. And then he also said oh, I know somebody at the RP and I just come back from CES.

Tonya J. Long: 38:42

I had been to the pavilion, you had seen their huge booth.

Andreas Mueller: 38:45

They're massive.

Tonya J. Long: 38:47

Pavilion. I called it a booth, but it sounds enormous To me.

Andreas Mueller: 38:50

A booth is it was. How big was this? I don't even know, it was just massive. And I was so impressed because I met up with startups. I talked to them. They're actually interested in what we were doing, how we could help them. And then you said I know somebody at the AARP and the AARP is nothing to sneeze at yeah, I know, shout out to.

Andreas Mueller: 39:14

Karin it's a1.8 billion association, the largest association in the US, larger than the NRA, and they have 30, is it 38 million members, almost 40 million? Wow, it's huge. And so again, this is the human part, this is community. This is something that would not have happened on Zoom it would not have happened on Zoom? It would not have happened within LinkedIn. It would not have happened within some kind of a digital tool as much as I love digital, it was you hearing my pivot supporting me and saying oh wait, I think I can make this introduction.

Andreas Mueller: 39:55

You made the introduction. We're still working with her. There's a lot of things going on that I can't talk about, but it's really exciting. And she introduced me to Andy Miller and to me the amazing thing is in when I lived in Germany, I was, my name was Andy because it was just a lot cooler than Andreas, which is very standard in German, and Miller is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Mueller. And so I thought this is me, this is wow.

Tonya J. Long: 40:24

This is serendipity.

Andreas Mueller: 40:25

There's something going on, and so he's the guy who actually helped create the whole Age Tech movement pivot within the ERP.

Tonya J. Long: 40:35

Oh, okay, and he's on the board, he's always there at CES.

Andreas Mueller: 40:40

He heads the summit that I'll be going to in DC in May, and so I met him and everything just took off. It was Tonya verifying yeah, you're on the right track, this is it, you go. And then suddenly there's Karin, and then there's Andy Miller, and it all makes sense. It all came together.

Tonya J. Long: 41:03

And so a lot of people look at our communities that aren't in them as social, and there is a big social element. I think we miss those of us who have traditionally been in a corporate office environment and we don't do that as much anymore. So I think there is a heavy social component, these communities that we're involved with, but they are also the people we used to sit down at the break table I've got my little bunny ears, my little quote marks in the air the break tables and talk about our ideas casually. These communities now serve as those break tables. I've never said that before, but it feels right. Maybe it feels old, but to get input, to get validation that we're on the right track, that gives us confidence and it gives us more reason to pursue new things, because you need support when you're pursuing new things. It's scary to go out on these paths and I think the validation's important.

Andreas Mueller: 42:03

Absolutely.

Tonya J. Long: 42:03

Yeah, yeah.

Andreas Mueller: 42:04

Which makes me think of Shack 15. Yeah, which is.

Tonya J. Long: 42:08

Everything makes you think of Shack 15. You're like their biggest ambassador Everybody but it's a wonderful and so just Please do your thing going yes.

Andreas Mueller: 42:17

Getting into what you were just saying about community and kind of the social aspect of it, it's always difficult for me to explain what Shack 15 is because it's so much. It's more than a work Some people perceive it as a co-working environment, which Shack 15 vehemently denies, because there's a long history to this as well.

Andreas Mueller: 42:42

Has to do with COVID, et cetera, et cetera, but they feel like, no, we're so much more. We're not just. Coworking is a component of it. Interestingly enough, they call themselves a social club. They're in the Ferry Building in a beautiful location in downtown San Francisco. It's my second office. I hang out there every Tuesday in downtown San Francisco. It's my second office. I hang out there every Tuesday, but to me it's really a home of entrepreneurs. It's like an entrepreneur's club.

Andreas Mueller: 43:11

It's a community it is. It's in a weird way, it's a true community because it's everything. They have food there, so this is something that never bugged me me. But they say you can't bring in your own food because they want to avoid having just stuff that it's a higher level idea, aesthetic, but I love that you can order food to your table. They have fantastic coffee and snacks and lunches that they're cooked. There's a kitchen right there and it's this. It's it's social, plus the view, the venue, plus food, which is so important, for I was just doing this podcast this morning about portugal and we just talk about food because it brings us together, but it's also the work side.

Andreas Mueller: 44:01

It's also the kind of marketing yourself and and finding amazing startups and entrepreneurs like ourselves and investors, and that's why I like shack 15 so much. Yeah, it all comes together, but it's this, it's this definition. What is it's like? Wow this, but it's this definition of what is it, it's like, wow, it's really hard Because in a sense it's everything. But that kind of cheapens it in a way, but not at all.

Tonya J. Long: 44:31

Now Check 15 is not your only community. It's one that you adore, right? I think about your work in Pavilion. You're a leader in Pavilion and because you have these different groups, and let's not fail to mention Ignite. I want to close out today with Ignite because we've got a big event coming up.

Tonya J. Long: 44:49

Love those guys, of course. Hi Jess, hey you too, bill. Yeah, bill, of course, because we've got to, but you've been in these communities and you are senior in these communities. You stand tall, you're a tall pole on the tent in these organizations, so you are senior in these communities. You stand tall, you're a tall pole in the tent in these organizations, so you are part of a lot of different reinventions that are occurring.

Tonya J. Long: 45:10

You no doubt you speak with 50 people every time you are at an event at night, so you're helping people with their transitions because everybody is moving forward into something else. What are the patterns after all these years of this networking? But it's more than networking, it's community building and support. What have you noticed that you think are the key factors or the common shared experiences that are making people successful in making transitions?

Andreas Mueller: 45:45

So I think, yeah, it's the support system that you have around you and in a weird simplistic way, it's if I make introductions for somebody. I just met somebody at Shack 15, a German kid that I really wanted to help, and so I made introductions and I try to be very deliberate, also very professional. I don't just to me it's really hard when somebody starts a group DM with you and somebody else and you and somebody else and the introducing party and then just says, hey, here you guys meet up and I mentioned your name, have at it. That to me is so difficult because it's lacking, it's completely lacking communication.

Andreas Mueller: 46:36

There's no segue there's no introduction, there's no what's in it for me, like what and what does this guy need? But if I can make an introduction I can say, hey, I think you could help this guy and he might be able to do something. Would you mind if I made an introduction and then then I might get another question from you. Then I can answer that, but just to have just a thought out process for these introductions. So it's more of a professional segue yeah, introductions should be curated yes and you have a responsibility when you're making introductions.

Tonya J. Long: 47:14

I've been hot dropped so many times and to just people, and I'm like please don't do that. It's so irritating, it's and it is, and I think people just don't know until they experience what it's like to be curated in your introduction to someone, to be delivered to another party, because both sides are important to the person making the introduction and for them to do it well, to set people up for the best possible bridge so that they understand each other's value. It's a skill, it's a gift and really it elevates us who do it that way, who curate those connections, because those connections are going to stick, because they've been set up appropriately.

Tonya J. Long: 48:00

So you mentioned a kid, so I'm going to do another. It seems like these have come on top of each other, it feels like but showing people a way to something new. And then you mentioned a kid. I'm sure they were 20.

Tonya J. Long: 48:12

Right, but KPCR 92.9 is doing a radio camp this summer, starting in June, for junior high, early high school age kids. So information is on our website that's kpcrorg. But I think that's something that you and I, in particular, with the audiences that we're with, would be able to introduce to people locally who have those teenage kids who are looking for something meaningful to do this summer. Speaking comfortably publicly is an important skill, but wrapping it around a radio delivery is fun and a great community for us to be creating with that age kids so that they have something to create, something specific and unique. So I just wanted to let our listeners know that we are delivering that camp this summer, starting in June, and look for specific details, dates, time of day on our website. I think community starts early and we have to give our kids opportunities to create community with things that they enjoy doing.

Andreas Mueller: 49:20

Let me just sneak in a little comment, Speaking of kids.

Andreas Mueller: 49:24

I think one of the things that we did really was to decide to homeschool our kids.

Tonya J. Long: 49:28

I didn't know that you homeschooled.

Andreas Mueller: 49:30

And the reason behind it wasn't to narrow down their education down a certain path, but really to open it up and the opportunities that we had because we were homeschooling was difficult but we were able to. So they enjoy music and playing music. They learned to play the violin and it became the fiddle.

Tonya J. Long: 49:53

Yes.

Andreas Mueller: 49:54

And my older daughter plays the cello, and that afforded us the luxury of being able to send them to fiddle camps and music camps because those often overlap with school and it's very difficult and they're like a week. They could be like five, six days, but they're so amazing in terms of just.

Andreas Mueller: 50:19

It's a venue, often in the woods, and it's just mind, just mind expanding for our kids and it's so different because assembling around music and musical instruments and you're jamming together and there's community, there's food and and yeah, I just wanted to yeah, but you started it early with slide that in there, one of my.

Tonya J. Long: 50:40

Airstream family members down in Carmel Valley. If he's not Airstreaming on the weekends, he's at a bluegrass festival because he is an amazing fiddle player.

Tonya J. Long: 50:50

And that's his community, right, there's food, there's music and there's people who enjoy both. And my friend, carl, shout out to you Carl, he is an amazing musician, but I think it's the community that keeps him focused on his music because it gives him a tribe to gather with. So finding these tribes, these communities that we have, is so important. Moving into this better life that, as we live longer, and bringing it back to Age Tech as we live longer, we need more things that give us joy. Yep, and it's not just work.

Andreas Mueller: 51:28

And it's not just work, definitely not.

Tonya J. Long: 51:30

I think you spend a lifetime developing and curating the list of things that you enjoy, and things shift as we physically shift things. There may be a day when it's hard for me to pull a 6,000 pound airstream, but I'm not worried about that because along the way I will be finding, through the communities I'm in, things that I enjoy that are pivots.

Andreas Mueller: 51:53

There you go yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 51:54

So the pivots that you have made in your life. What do you think has made you so successful? You homeschooled your kids. You got a house full of artists. You work in tech. What do you think at your root has made you successful at that?

Andreas Mueller: 52:11

I think there's something that I just recently learned, and this was you're a teenager with a hot head.

Andreas Mueller: 52:17

I mean it wasn't that bad, but I but I wasn't the most patient human being.

Tonya J. Long: 52:23

You are very patient now.

Andreas Mueller: 52:25

Yeah, and I try to be very calm because it helps people around me too. If I'm managing people or just interacting with people, just bring it down a notch, like it'll be okay. Here's the worst that can happen.

Andreas Mueller: 52:39

Now let's move forward and to me that's been like a huge learning experience, I'd say recently, in the last 10 years, maybe something like that, but just the patience, and I think it's brought me so much patience. It also fits in with listening, right, because if you're patient, you can sit there and just open your ears and understand what that person is actually asking you. So yeah, because people look at us and they think, oh man, they've got it all figured out.

Tonya J. Long: 53:11

No, not at all, far from it.

Andreas Mueller: 53:13

Not at all. We're always like you said, it's the journey it's nice to say pivot, because it sounds like we know what we're doing.

Tonya J. Long: 53:22

But you pivot because you're scared out of your wits and we're trying to fill a gap. Gaps happen in life, but they happen for us, not to us.

Andreas Mueller: 53:30

I guess the thing I've also learned is that if I'm having a really bad moment, a moment of just horrible fear about the future, about what could happen, like with a business or a client who's left, or something like that.

Andreas Mueller: 53:46

I look back and I'm sure we're entrepreneurs, but it's really true. So we look back and we realize, oh, you know what this kind of happened a year ago. Is this issue still like a burning hot concern? No, it's gone, it's resolved. I dealt with it, it's okay. And so just to have that. I guess what I call patience here too, is just to look at that and to realize it will be okay. Just try to take it down a notch and lower the flame a bit.

Tonya J. Long: 54:19

But you have more than patience. You have purpose in everything you do. Twenty years ago, today, I think you have clarity of purpose and that purpose can ebb and flow. They switch, transition to new things. But that sense of purpose that you carry is also the nature of who you are. So what advice would you give to our listeners who are in, maybe, that gap period where they're looking to reinvent themselves and they may be, actively or not, looking for their next layer of purpose? What is your advice to them?

Andreas Mueller: 54:57

I would say find a community, but align with an ally or a mentor that you feel comfortable with, who actually listens, who's patient, who can give you some ideas, who can support you, because I think that is so important just that human part, because they're all the tools in the world and there's AI and chat GPT and sure, whatever, but just having this person. So I really admire my brother, who's gay, he used to work, he's very active in the LGBTQ community and he used to work with IBM and within IBM there's a lot of openness to supporting the LGBTQ family, and he was very involved in mentoring and reverse mentoring, and so the reverse mentoring.

Andreas Mueller: 55:55

we don't deal with that a lot, but it's a kid. Who's this 25 year old hire who's being mentored by this super intelligent, leadership driven vp? And there's so much value that can be passed both ways. Obviously the vp can say hey, don't worry about it but both ways we got you covered. Yeah, and I'm just where I was in thes.

Tonya J. Long: 56:23

Oh my god, like we've come so far but then the kid also saying hey, here's what I'm seeing, both parties really getting something out of it and recognizing that the 50 year olds, just as a group, have to recognize that there's so much value for us to learn from. Oh my god, the younger people around us and I think we're coming to that.

Tonya J. Long: 56:41

Perseverance, energy positivity so we're gonna have to do this again. We will have to have more conversations. In the meantime, where can people find you If people have heard something today that resonated with them and they want to follow you on LinkedIn? Not stalking follow you, but follow you on LinkedIn? What's the best way for them?

Andreas Mueller: 57:09

The best place is really LinkedIn.

Tonya J. Long: 57:11

Just direct DM me on LinkedIn and they can find you at On LinkedIn Andreas Mueller.

Andreas Mueller: 57:17

Oh man, it's like search, wow, okay. So Andreas Mueller, m-u-e-l-l-e-r, m-u-e-l-l-e-r yeah, perfect. And also look up Blue Fusion is my company. B-l-o-o-f-u-s-i-o-n. Perfect. I'll put that in the show notes for when we publish this. Much better than email. Yeah, I get so many emails, I just don't yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 57:33

It's been wonderful. So, thank you, thank you us today. Not just Age Tech, but a different way of looking at life's transitions and being patient with yourself as you continue to evolve and find new things that are going to excite you and give meaning into the world. It's been wonderful to have you here.

Andreas Mueller: 57:52

Tonya, thank you so much. This has been incredible. What a great journey.

Tonya J. Long: 57:57

Wonderful, thank you. So everyone, we've been listening to RESET with Tonya on KPCR LP 92.9 FM, here in increasingly sunny Los Gatos. We will see you next week, thank you.

Tonya J. Long: 58:16

Thanks for joining us on RESET. Remember, transformation is a journey, not a destination. So until next time, keep exploring what's possible. I'm Tonya Long and this is home. This is RESET.